Flickr bug provides cause for thoughts

Was just looking at some of my photos and watched them practically disappear before my eyes. After a mini panic attack, I found out I was not alone. I’m assuming it’s just a bug, and the photos themselves are a-okay. But it did make me think a bit about my personal reliance on Flickr. I use it as…

a backup for all my photos

a way to share with friends and family

a host for photos for all of my blogses (4 of em)

Regarding losing the backup – not a big deal, since I have TRIPLE backups of my photos (portable HDD in my laptop bag, Drobo in my office, Maxtor NAS in my home). There’s no question that multiple backups of digital photos are essential. If you don’t have a backup solution that has some form of offsite redundancy, find one immediately – it’s much more important than debating opensocial and facebook.

Regarding losing the sharing – not a terribly big deal, since I can easily re-upload elsewhere. I would be a bit annoyed at having to re-tag things that I’ve organized, but I’d assume the entire process would be less than a day’s work.
Regarding the hosting part – this is actually the biggest pain. Sure I can reupload, but I’d then have to go back to literally every single blog post I’ve written and redirect the links. This would be so time-consuming I can say right now – I ain’t doing it.

In the time it’s taken me to discover the problem and write the post, the Flickr guys have fixed the bug. But in a way I’m glad it’s happened as it gives me a bit of perspective on how much I should rely on any single technology/platform/service.

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About

Jeremy Toeman is a seasoned Product leader with over 20 years experience in the convergence of digital media, mobile entertainment, social entertainment, smart TV and consumer technology. Prior ventures and projects include CNET, Viggle/Dijit/Nextguide, Sling Media, VUDU, Clicker, DivX, Rovi, Mediabolic, Boxee, and many other consumer technology companies. This blog represents his personal opinion and outlook on things.